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The Chronology of the Kings and Queenmothers of Bono-Manso: A Revaluation of the Evidence*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Colin Flight
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Extract

The formation of Bono-Manso appears to date from the early fifteenth century, perhaps c. 1420. It is concluded that it was not until the late sixteenth century, during the reign of the ninth king, that the procedures still in use at Takyiman for recording reign-length were first introduced. Muslim influence is strongly to be suspected. Perhaps at the same time, perhaps later, factitious records of reign-length were supplied for earlier generations of the dynasty, on the assumption that three generations make 100 years. Fairly accurate dating is possible for the kings and queenmothers of Bono-Manso during the period 1577–1723, and of Takyiman since its formation in the 1740s. It is no part of this paper to explore the implications of the shortened chronology suggested here, but a date in the early fifteenth century for the establishment of Bono-Manso seems to square well with current thinking.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 1970 , pp. 259 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

1 The Sacred State of the Akan (London, 1951), Akan Traditions of Origin (London, 1952), The Akan of Ghana: their ancient beliefs (London, 1958), The Divine Kingship in Ghana and Ancient Egypt (London, 1960), At the Court of an African King (London, 1926).Google Scholar

2 Traditions of Origin, 32–3; Akan of Ghana, 103–27.Google Scholar

3 Traditions of Origin, 30–1.Google Scholar

4 The ‘year’ in question is said to be one of 365 days. Presumably the Bono have always been aware of the year as a natural unit of time, marked by a cycle of seasonal changes, even if they could hardly have determined its length with any accuracy. There seems no reason to doubt that in the long run at least, on average, the Bono ‘year’ was roughly equal to an astronomical year.

5 Akan of Ghana, 127–8.Google Scholar

6 The following notation is used: TK for Takyimanhene, TQ for Takyimanhemaa, BK for Bonohene, BQ for Bonohemaa.

7 Meyerowitz was in Takyiman herself at the time: Divine Kingship, 57, n. 4.Google Scholar

8 Wilks, I. G., ‘The growth of the Akwapim state,’ in Vansina, J., Mauny, R., and Thomas, L. V. (eds.), The Historian in Tropical Africa (O.U.P., 1964), 390–409.Google Scholar

9 Cited by Goody, J., in Goody, J. and Arhin, K. (eds.), Ashanti and the North-West, (Legon, 1965), 93, n. 26.Google Scholar

10 Ibid. 75.

11 The line drawn between samples A and B is not arbitrary, as will be shown, but it may be assumed so for the purposes of this analysis.

12 Levtzion, N. I., Muslims and Chiefs in West Africa (O.U.P., 1968), 194–5, makes the same point, and is led to write off the Bono-Manso data altogether. I come to a different conclusion.Google Scholar

13 Akan of Ghana, 113.Google Scholar

14 Ibid. III.

15 Ibid. 107.

16 Ibid. 109.

17 Ibid. 114, 116–17.

18 Traditions of Origin, 29.Google Scholar

19 Wilks, I. G., in Report on the First Conference of the Ashanti Research Project (Legon, 1964), 17–8. For the Kitāb Ghunjä see note 30 below.Google Scholar

20 Divine Kingship, 227, n. I, suggests an explanation for the disagreement.Google Scholar

21 Akan of Ghana, 125.Google Scholar

22 Ibid. 117, 124, 126.

23 It is marked on a Dutch map of 1629: Daaku, K. Y. and van Danzig, A., Ghana Notes and Queries, IX (1966), 14–5.Google Scholar

24 Traditions of Origin, 59.Google Scholar

25 Lawrence, A. W., Trade Castles and Forts in West Africa (London, 1963), 199.Google Scholar

26 A point I owe to Dr K. Y. Daaku of the Department of History, University of Ghana.

27 Traditions of Origin, 57; Akan of Ghana, 115.Google Scholar

28 Akan of Ghana, 119.Google Scholar

29 Ibid. 123.

30 First published in translation by Goody, J., The Ethnography of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast west of the White Volta (Colonial Office, 1954),Google Scholar appendix IV. The chronological evidence has been discussed recently by Wilks, I. G., ‘A note on the chronology, and origins, of the Gonja kings,’ Ghana Notes and Queries, VIII (1966), 26–8,Google Scholar and by Levtzion, N. I., Muslims and Chiefs, 195–6.Google Scholar

31 Published by Goody, J., op. cit. appendix VII.Google Scholar

32 Referred to alternatively as the Nkoranzas, an obvious anachronism. In this context Bono-Manso must be meant.